


Trees

by kaydeefalls



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-12-08
Updated: 2002-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 04:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaydeefalls/pseuds/kaydeefalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trees. There's got to be an explanation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trees

**Author's Note:**

> Improv fic! Took me exactly 43 minutes, so I just made it. Oh, and was supposed to end with a single word that makes an impact. Whether it does indeed make an impact or not is up to you.... And thank you, Gabby!

"Trees?"

"Trees," Dom agrees.

I blink at him. "Mind enlightening me?"

"Anytime, Billy," he says with a leering grin.

I roll my eyes. "Not like that, you daft lad. But, trees?"

"Yeah, trees." He finishes the last S on his right hand, with the slow, uncertain caution that goes along with writing with the wrong hand. Done, he sets the marker down and surveys his artistry.

"I hate to break it to you, Dommie, but you're going to look like a complete idiot at the premiere."

He just grins at me. "And since when has that ever bothered me?"

*

Trees. It's going to be in every fucking picture taken of him tonight. He sticks his hands out at the cameras, not quite smiling, daring the photographers to do their worst. Someone asks him what the words mean, and he stammers it off without any real explanation. This behavior doesn't make any sense to me. Dom's not exactly bashful.

"It's all an act, isn't it?" I accuse him, stealing a few seconds of conversation before some new arsehole with a camera corners us.

"All what?" he asks innocently.

"Trees!"

He smiles softly to himself. "Trees."

I eye him suspiciously. "Is this another one of those mad PR stunts you and Lij have been pulling lately?"

Dom makes an interesting face at me, then quickly brings up his hand -- trees! -- just in time for the latest camera flash. I stare at him for a second, as the photographer clicks away, then remember to turn my head and give the camera my best bemused expression. Dom gives me a sharp, quick nudge in the ribs. "Come on, ham it up with me," I can almost hear him muttering. Merry and Pippin, first rate idiots. Right. So I make a joke of it too, laughing and mock-snarling.

But, trees? It's got to be something he dreamed up with Elijah. The pair of them have some kind of grudge against the press lately, or maybe just a profound need to see how far they can push the line. I was gobsmacked when I met up with them in New York to discover Lij's shaved head. That, and some snickering about certain color combinations. Damned if I have any idea what it's all about. And now trees.

"Oh, Dom," I mutter under my breath. "What are you lads up to now?"

He doesn't hear me. Or maybe he just doesn't want to answer.

*

"Trees!" Elijah gasps, trying to stop laughing before someone from the press notices and wanders over. "Oh, man, that's fucking awesome!"

Dom is almost red-faced, trying to hold in his own laughter. "I can't wait to hear what they'll be saying now."

Elijah takes a few deep, calming breaths. "Priceless, man. Priceless."

"Would one of you please tell me what is going on?" I demand, exasperated.

Elijah just grins impishly at me. "Ask Dom," he says, before a new reporter's shout calls him away.

I glare at Dom. He shrugs, eyes twinkling. "It's nothing, mate. Just a little game Lij and I have been playing. There are some really cracked people on the internet, have you ever noticed?"

He won't give me any more of an explanation.

*

Trees. Why trees? What the hell do trees have to do with anything?

I slip into Dom's hotel room, forsaking much of the after party. Dom and Elijah invited me to go to the hotel bar with them, but I bowed out with some excuse of jet lag. I don't need to see them get drunk together tonight, and I don't need to see what they'll do once they're properly smashed.

Sure enough, Dom's got a small laptop with him. No password needed to log on. And once on the internet, it doesn't take much in the way of computer skills to pull up a list of the last sites he visited. Cracked people on the internet, indeed.

The sites I find are less than reassuring. Surely Dom and Elijah wouldn't be sleeping together without telling me! We're best mates, Dom and I. He's supposed to tell me these things. But maybe I've been too out of the loop lately, what with filming in Mexico and all. And who knows what those two loons get up to in L.A.?

The door opens, and I close the laptop guiltily. "Dom."

"Billy." He looks at me, leaning against the doorframe. "What are you doing?"

I shrug. "Cracked people on the internet, Dom?"

He smirks. "Oh, that. Yeah. Scary, innit?"

"Just a mite, perhaps. Why aren't you going back to Elijah's room, then?"

Dom scratches the back of his neck. "Maybe I live on the hope that I'll find you in mine." He smiles like it's meant to be a joke, but if it is, it falls flat.

I sigh, standing and walking towards the door. I would leave, but he's still there, blocking my way. And I know him well enough to recognize that look in his eyes. He's not going to move, not until he's damn well ready. "Trees, Dominic?"

"Trees," he says softly. "Fangorn. The Ents. Merry and Pippin. You and me, Billy. Trees. And us."

The distance between us evaporates, somehow. It takes me an impossibly long second to realize that his lips are on mine.

Trees, oddly enough, and I'm kissing him back.

Oh.


End file.
